Thankful Thursday - around the house

As I was sitting pondering my Thankful Thursday topics for today, and thinking about maybe doing another 'themed' version (I really don't know how long I'll be able to keep up themes - I'm just not that bright!) aaaaaand I found myself inspired by my house!  hahaha  SO, without further blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaahhh....

THANKFUL THURSDAY

the "around the house" edition

(things to do and/or sitting on the floor or put away in their place around my house as I sit at the computer wondering what things to write about today....)

1) DANCING

(from: http://blog.wfuv.org/?m=201001)

So, I don't think it's weird to love dancing, right? Everyone loves to bust a move now and then, yeah? Some of us are, you know, actually GOOD at it, and thennnn...there are the rest of us.  Who, when we launch into the groove adopt the white-man-overbite, the side-step shuffle, John-Travolta-hand oooooooorrrrrrr one of my personal favourites, the shopping cart!

I believe I am one of these.  When I dance, except for the purple, I think I probably look kinda' like this little guy:

(from: http://baristamagazine.com/blog/?category_name=retailing)

But I'm not going to lie: I REALLY DON'T CARE! I know I look silly soooooo why not have some fun with it and look even sillier? The sillier you make it the more loose you can be and the more fun I have, at least!

DANCING! It's just....pure awesomeness.  Has got to be one of my absolute most favourite things ever.  And I don't know, could you ever really credit ONE person with creating it, being responsible enough for my knee-jerk-to-the-beat movements that there's someone I CAN be grateful to for it?  I mean, it SEEMS to be almost an innate reaction to awesome tunes - Little Miss has ALWAYS bopped to music; she ADORES dancing.  I'll put on a tune and she'll be in the middle of something and it's like she can't HELP but bop her head or waggle her butt in time to the song.

Did I mention it's exercise?  HOLLA!

Have you seen this video yet? (sorry, embedding is unavailable sooooo click the link. For real.) I love it.  I love what the surprise-special-guest-superstar-dancer says at the end about dancing: "...everyone should do this; it's SO much fun."

Maybe I'm grateful that I grew up with some experience dancing and bopping around and that it's totally normal, okay, and EXPECTED even for some of us to bust out into crazy jives when we crank the tunes.

(There may or may not have been an impromptu dance party in my kitchen this afternoon.  Well, what do you think happens when you mix a 28-year-old. 13-year-old, and 3.5-year-old with a room full of dirty dishes and the newest Glee album featuring Justin Bieber ditties?  I HOPE someone saw us 'cause there was some serious fun going on!)

2) PHOTOGRAPHS

I've been working on getting some older photos scrapbooked lately and...I'm just so grateful I HAVE them!

2005 trip to a HOJO in Toronto with visits to the Ontario Science Centre, Metro Toronto Zoo, Tim Hortons and the movies!

2006 trip with my family to Florida, including golf, swimming, being cramped in a rental, lots of mozzarella sticks, and Disney World.

Trying to take pictures of ourselves in California in 2007. Mr. Man was getting up to see if the camera was working....

Very pregnant.  2007.

Later in 2007. She's so huge now!

Always a class act! At our wedding, obviously, in 2003.

Grandma.

Love this lady!

Behind the scenes of a wedding BBQ!

Straigtening out for pictures.

Not every kid can rock a Pebbles hair-do latched onto a neon-green suckie AND hold a ferret!  Feb 2009

 Cue: Barbara Streisand... "Meeeeeeeeemoriiiiiiiieeeeeeeessssssssss......."  (although, I know the song is really "Memory".... just got with it).

3) MY KNIFE SHARPENER

(from: http://blog.asseenonpcnetwork.com/?p=521, and no, neither my knives or my knife sharpener look as fantastically scary as in the picture I choose - I just like the intensity of the picture....) O:-)

So, one day, I "grew up" (HA! hahahahahahaha Oh, THAT'S FUNNY!) got married, and moved into a "house" of my own.

With some knives.

And I didn't notice it happen, but I eventually discovered how really displeased I was with my knives! I'd go home to my Mom's fantastic kitchen and her fantastic kitchen things and I'd cut with her knives, and then trudge home to my tiny kitchen with my not-so-fantastic kitchen things (some of my stuff is fantastic, some of my stuff is young-married-ish. I mean, it happens, right?) and I'd really really notice how much I hated my knives.

Then one day my MIL, knowing I hated my knives, found a whole SET on sale somewhere, and picked them up for me as a gift!

HOORAY! New knives! They work, they're great, they're wonderful! I love my knives!!

But then I'd go home and use my mom's stuff and then trudge home to MY stuff.... and my knives weren't so great.

I mean, the grass is always greener, right??

.....THEN one day my Mom and Dad were cleaning out the extras from their house.

And they offered me their no-longer-in-use knife sharpener.


Wait, WHAT?

Soooooo.....my knives are STILL not as great as my mom's - she just got a really fancy-schmancy super-dee-duper professional-and-then-some holy-mackeral-knives-cost-HOW-much set for her birthday last October....that grass is like, unbelievable. I can't imagine ever needing knives like my mom has, (they're probably kinda' crazy intense like the one in the picture that mine aren't like?) ;) buuuut I LOVE MY KNIVES!

So, THANKS MIL for my knives, and THANKS SO MUCH to MY parents for cluing me in on how the heck to get my great knives to actually cut things after they dulled.

shaking head

Yeah, I know.  Sometimes I'm a moron....

4) KRAFT DINNER

(from: http://starktower.blogspot.com/2010/08/theres-always-kraft-dinner.html)

Today, I went to Costco. And bought a ginormous box of Kraft Dinner for less than $10.

I know, I know. There are MANY evils to Kraft dinner.  Like, empty-caloric white pasta, POWDERED cheese (really, yeah, 'cause THAT sounds all-natural), aaaaaand a heck of a lot of 'orange-number-whatever'....

BUT IT'S SO GOOD!

For a few reasons:

1. EVERYBODY loves it. 
2. ESPECIALLY Little Miss, aaaaaaand I'm not going to lie, I LOVE making that kid happy. 
3. It's so darn EASY
4. It's so darn FAST
5. It's inexpensive
6. It really DOES taste good
7. .....you can add your own twist and make it even less healthy yummier! (Like, sometimes, instead of mixing in milk and butter we use whipping cream and butter....droooooll... OH and finish it off with some freshly-grated-into-the-pot old (strong) cheddar - creamy, sharp, delicious KD taste.  Ooooooooooohhhh yeaaaaaaaahhhh..... 
8. One pot to clean!

So I KNOW that there is little to no nutritional value to this meal, ESPECIALLY when we make up the extra-fattening version above.  But I'm sure glad it's around 'cause it's such an easy meal, it's a treat, and it makes us all happy.

And don't worry. The giant box will last us a while.  .....at least until next week.....

5) SPLURGES
..........I dunno. I don't buy myself a lot - or at least it feels that way; Mr. Man may have another thought on this statement, but... this isn't his blog! - buuuut today, I splurged.  A whopping $13.49 I spent on absolutely nothing but myself.  I saw it, I wanted it, and I only debated with myself for a moment and then said, you know what? I'm BUYING it.

You know how many people CAN'T DO THAT??  Aaaaaaand really, probably, I really shouldn't do that.  I mean, we have some serious financial things going on being ex-students-new-workers-with-not-humongous-paycheques, and a house to keep up, a family to look after....

But I splurged. Today, I can splurge, and I did. And it feels a little like a well-deserved pat on the back and I'm okay with that today.  And unbelievably grateful that I live in a place where and with people for whom that is a-okay.

AND my splurge may or may not have been the thing that instigated the rockin' dance party mentioned before.... just sayin'. :-)

And THAT, my friends, is this week's Thankful Thursday. 

Snooze

(from: http://365daystoahealthierme.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/i-cant-sleep/)

Back to 6am wake ups. groan

I know that 6 REALLY isn't that early and that there are lots of crazy-demented-overachievers people who DO routinely get up at 6 without any problems or headaches.....

....but man oh man, I am NOT one of them.

Mr. Man and I have been having a hard time adjusting to daylight savings time, actually, the last week.  Our nightly routine instead of landing us in bed around 11 or midnight just continued as normal, except the clock changed, so we've been landing in bed around midnight or 1 all week.  I know, I know.  GENIUS move.

So we've been a little bit fatigued this week.  Totally self-inflicted, that's fine, but there it is.

So yesterday, knowing that I had a 6am wake-up today (which my ill-adjusted body still thinks is 5am) I planned to just hunker down for the afternoon, get through the day AWAKE, and get to bed by 9. Because I was so tired I knew I could fall asleep quickly and figured an extra hour or so at night would be just fantabulous to helping me adjust and recover from the week of stupidity. 

I made it nap-free 'till about 4:30.  Then, I just DIED.

I didn't even sleep a full hour! It was one of the shorter naps I've ever laid down for AND interrupted with a phone call....

....so why the HECK did it take me over three hours to fall asleep when I went to bed last night??  I did NOT nap long enough to make up for previous zombie state, and USUALLY when I go to bed, that's it! I'm down, I'm out and I SLEEEEEEEEEEP!  (Have I mentioned lately that sleeping is one of my most favourite things to do? It's just, such a TREAT to sleep snuggly, comfortably, uninterupted-ly, deeply...mmmmmmmmmmm......... visions of pillows and blankets wrapping around me in my head.....)

Yeah. Couldn't sleep.

So now, at 7:09am, after having been up for over an hour, with a lovely daycare child playing happily in the playroom.... I WANT MY BED!!  I am so TIRED!  My head feels swollen - you know that not-quite-a-headache uncomfortable feeling? I have THAT - my eyes have that ever-so-slightly burning, NOT refreshed feeling to them.... and I've been up for over an hour AND IT'S STILL DARK OUTSIDE! 

That is just wrong.

I tried counting sheep last night.  It went something like this:


Okay, count sheep.  That will focus you on something so menial your mind won't wander.  Okay, great.  One, two.... wait, is that a sheep or just a white blob?  Okay, PICTURE a sheep.  What does a sheep look like. Yeah, that's a silly animated-looking one.  What about the sheep at the petting zoo.  Okay.  But that sheep doesn't look like a jumper, I can't picture it jumping a fence.  Why the heck when we count sheep are they jumping fences anyway? That's stupid. I should just count them grazing grass.  Okay, a bunch of sheep.  One, two, three, wait, did I count that one? How do shepherds DO this? They all look the same....

(from: http://mychinaconnection.com/english-slang/counting-sheep/)

Yeah, it was one of my more brilliant internal dialogues.

So I will stumble through yet another day, longing for bedtime.  Hopefully I will be able to discipline myself this evening and GO TO BED at a decent hour and then, without resorting to the apparently ridiculous task of counting leaping lambs fall asleep, ready for TOMORROW'S pre-dawn hours. 

YAWN

Thankful Friday?

So...yesterday I was working on my Thankful Thursday post wheeeeeeeen.... I totally fell asleep. hahaha  I think between using every spare second to paint my bathroom, covering the daycare, visiting with my SIL and three wonderful nieces and trying to keep the regular we're-starting-to-get-on-top-of-our-house housework done, oh yeah, and being SICK.... I just had it!  hahaha

Don't worry -there were no children in the house when I dozed off.  Well, except my own. She was watching Sesame Street.  And she didn't let me sleep long because the show ended and I got smacked in the face with an exclamation of "AGAIN! Sessmeeee Sweeet again, pwease, Mom!"

Yeah, that'll wake you up.

Anyway, so I missed my few minutes of blogging time and did NOT get Thankful Thursday posted.

So let's just pretend today isn't Friday (except I'm SO excited it is! HUZZAH end of the week!) aaaand:

THANKFUL THURSDAY  

the "spare time" edition
(yes, that's right, I went with a bit of a theme this week - things I'm grateful for having during my spare time. I know, I know, it's pure awesomeness.)

1) BOOKS

(from: http://www.artsjournal.com/bookdaddy/2008/07/)

I LOVE me some books.  LOVE them.  Which, I know, isn't an anomaly or even all that defining but man oh man do I love to read.  I've read 12 books so far this year - my thirteenth is going a little slower, I think, with the drive to get the bathroom painted aaaaand a lot of times, when I'm sick, I curl up on the couch in front of the TV (yay Netflix!) and zone out...and I've been sick this week.  hahaha Anyway, lately I've been through a book or two a week, depending on the length, my interest, and whatever all else. 

But enough about my reading habits! This is THANKFUL "Thursday".  I'm THANKFUL for books.  I've never been much of one for tearing stories apart looking for themes, lessons, what-is-the-author-trying-to-say kinda' garbage (have you seen Finding Forrester with Sean Connery? LOVE it! He plays this author who wrote "The Great American Novel" and then never writes another book because he's so P.O.ed with everyone for ANALYZING the thing to death! He's like, WHY the heck did it have to mean anything more than what it says?!?!  LOVE LOVE LOVE it! hahaha) but all that aside...

...I love getting lost in a book. I love the creative license left in the medium for my brain to be totally enraptured in its own understanding of the story. I love being able to read the words, picture it, and FEEL like it's happening to me. 

I spend so much time reading I can't imagine life BEFORE books! Isn't that a horrid thought? That only the richest of the rich and elitest of the elite COULD even read? And then were very selective about what books who got when? Geeeeeeeze.....  can you imagine not being ALLOWED to have a copy of the Bible, even? Goodness forbid anyone be able to use their own mind and understand things. 

THANK you, Gutenberg! Thanks world, for evolving to a place where I CAN read, anything I want to, whenever I want to.  Sometimes I read classics (Austen, Mark Twain, Dickens, Bronte), sometimes I read YA (Twilight, Blue Bloods, The Hunger Games), sometimes chick lit (Sophie Kinsella, anyone?), sometimes the latest craze (The DaVinci Code, The Host, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)....

Thanks for writing and thanks for letting me read.

2) NAPS

(from: http://ashleysfunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/02/everything-is-bigger-in-texas.html)

Do I really need to say much more than this, especially the day I'm writing Thursday's post LATE BECAUSE of an accidental nap?

Naps are one of my most favourite things. 

Aaaaaaaaaand I couldn't take them without lots of help.  USUALLY by one, poor, nap-deprived Mr. Man (alTHOUGH, he doesn't LOVE naps as much as I do - sometimes when we BOTH have opportunity to nap and I dive right into bed he paces around and then lands on the computer playing video games.... which is TOTALLY fine, but makes me feel a little extra justified in the I-take-advantage-of-him-and-nap-on-the-weekends-more-than-he-does bit of our marriage).

Proper naps, on a bed, with snuggly blankets everywhere and a fantastic pillow..... blisssssss

(from: http://www.zazzle.ca/consciousness_that_annoying_time_between_naps_tshirt-235748040862746940)

3) SPORTS

(from: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/06/soccer/soccer-text.html)

I think maybe in one of my classes in school it was (? memory, where art thou?) where I (we) was (were) asked to identify the MOST FUN THING EVER. Like, what is the one thing that you do that you'd rather do any time than anything else, that is just the best.  And I thought and thought and thought about what is invariably the GREATEST thing.

And I decided, for me, it's sports. 

I have more fun playing sports, running around, laughing, exerting and competing with friends than just about anything else.  That doesn't mean I DON'T LOVE OTHER THINGS or other people or that I can't have fun playing Blockus with my family (if you've played board/card/any games with me, you KNOW I have fun!) but SPORTS, for me, are invariably, my favourite most fun thing to do. 

If there's a pickup game going on somewhere, of ANYTHING, I want in.  If there's a chance for a regular game of anything? I want in. 

And as much as I enjoy individual sporting - running, swimming, cycling, etc. - where the only real competition is with myself, there's that added oomph about being with and playing with friends that brings extra awesomeness to the whole thing.

How lucky am I that my parents saw that I was a sporty kid and let me follow my childhood best friend around the soccer leagues growing up. That I was supported in swimming, in 6am hockey practice in high school, in my high school wrestling stint (I made it to OFSAA, the provincial competition! ....hahahahaaaaa yeah, that's a story in itself), that I was driven to soccer games in and outside of town, allowed to participate on the select league teams and travel to tournaments.  That we had some sport activities at church where we got to get together with a totally different group of people and have fun with in volleyball and basketball tournaments.  That I have been permitted to understand and define myself and my femininity on my own terms, without the bars of illegal female activity.  That I had an awesome highschool PE program and got to try and fall in love with sports like broomball, curling, squash, floor hockey, badminton, tennis....

Thanks, world, for giving me sports.

4) MOVIES

(from: http://www.peoplejam.com/blog/7591/why-america-needs-its-superheroes)

Okay, so in addition to reading, sleeping, and exercising...I'm a movie person. hahaha  A little while ago Mr. Man and I were getting some advice on togetherness from a wonderful guy who said that he and his wife watch a movie together every single night. And we were like, wait, WHAT?  'Cause we just couldn't SWING that!  He then went on to explain that they put on a movie, sit together, and pay half attention to the movie, half to the newspaper or magazine they're reading, and are just...TOGETHER. 

Which is SO great, I'm SO glad that works!  But Mr. Man and I got out of the conversation and were like, yeaaaaah.... no.  hahaha

Movies, on the couch or at the cinema, movies are EVENTS!  They are planned for and around, and EXPERIENCED.  (Often with popcorn!  hahaha)

At least that's how it is for me.  And Mr. Man, I think, too.

So why am I grateful for movies?  Well, it's an adoration that Mr. Man and I both share, so it goes a surprisingly long way in our "similarities" checklist in our happily-married column. ;) We even like a lot of the same TYPES of movies - can I just say how through-the-roof excited we both were when we first saw this trailer? YEEEEEEEHaaaaw does that look like a great time or WHAT??

And THAT is why I'm grateful for movies. We ENJOY them. It's fun to borrow someone ELSE's vision for a couple of hours and escape into whatever reality is operating to make the movie plausible.  It's the escapism of my books with less effort with bird's eye view.  'Cause lemme tell ya', as great as my imagination may be, I don't think in a million years I could have dreamed up anything similar to what James Cameron had going on in his head with Avatar. Or Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Aaaaaaand although we've always been Batman fans (hello, Adam West, anyone?) our undying devotion to the greatest "super"hero ever was definitely sealed by Christopher Nolan's brilliant Batman Begins, which is absolutely (for the moment) my favourite movie of all time. (Joss Whedon doesn't like it and is AGAIN rebooting the series? Really?  Should be interesting 'cause.... I generally really like Whedon's stuff.... hmmmm....)

5) BABYSITTERS

(from: http://welcometomysoapbox.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-much-should-i-pay-my-babysitter.html)

AND, as I mentioned, briefly, in NAPS, where on EARTH would any of these wonderful spare moments even COME from if it weren't for people OTHER than me lending a hand and keeping their eyes on my kid for a few minutes. 

I couldn't read books at night while Little Miss is getting ready for bed.

I couldn't take naps on Sunday afternoons after a too long week or a too late Saturday.

I couldn't go out and  play sports without a team of willing friends on the sidelines watching until Mr. Man makes it from work, or Mr. Man already taking that one for me so I can leave for a bit.

I can't go to the movies with Mr. Man without someone watching the kid. My parents, his mom, our friends... SOMEONE takes that kid!  Unless it's a kid movie (she LOVED Tangled, as did we) then she comes with us... :-)

I can't go to the movies with FRIENDS unless Mr. Man can be home and is willing to be in charge for the evening. 

Babysitters. I am SO lucky to practically have an ARMY of ready, willing, able, and cost-effective O:-) friends and family to turn to so I CAN enjoy my spare-time activities.  And that's huge. 

Thanks, babysitters!

Okay, time to make lunch. :-)

Stoked

So, I'm just a wee little bit excited today.

I finally got around to getting my registration done for summer soccer this season.

Booyah!

Not playing last year was, well, honestly? A really stupid move on my part.  hahaha I don't know what I was thinking.  And then this year I've been sort of back and forth about it - starting fresh with new people and a new team and all the craziness that goes on during a game on a pitch full of estrogen.... I've been in such a fantastically good place lately the negatives that come along with my favourite sport seemed to be vastly outweighing the positives. 

But I haven't found that THING that I can do to replace my favourite thing. I've tried to find a squash partner I can regularly go and play with - I LOVE squash - but don't get responses when asking, directly, HEY-wanna-be-squash-partners of someone.  I tried for a running partner once, who was a boy, and his first question was "...ummm... what do you wear when you run?"  Which OBVIOUSLY meant he was SUPER comfortable with the idea. hahaha  Anyway, just, my attempts thus far have been foiled.

THEN, mid hemming-and-hawing I got a message on Facebook from an old teammate, looking to get as many of our team back together as possible for this season! 

IT'S A SIGN! 

hahaha  And THEN another old friend from the team AGES ago now messaged and said she wants to get back into it this summer, so I of course told her to piggy-back on the first messaging gal's initiative....

and we're all signed up.

I have a team! I have a sport!  I have my Friday nights all summer planned! 

I'm excited. :-)

A little perspective?

So, not wanting what happened last week to happen again this week - only post on Thankful Thursday? What? - I opened up blogger this morning with an attempt to fill this "compose" box with...something.  Anything.

After going months without contracting any illness (come on, if you've read me for any length of time you KNOW how weird it is for me NOT to be sick every other week - it's been brilliant) I finally, this weekend, succumbed to a cold/sinus....botherment.

And I find so far I'm the absolute WORST in the mornings.  By evening I feel fairly fine, almost human... my head spins a bit, but the throbbing in my sinuses dies down, my throat isn't raw, whatever.  I can make sense of the world from a vertical perspective instead of aching to die under the covers in my bed.

So with all this rattling around in my head this morning I sat and stared at the blank screen.  I felt really really whiny and like I really had nothing to tell you about today other than how I'm sick again.

Then, in my sick-induced-wasting-time-today haze I stumbled across this video (that this morning I couldn't find to embed here and this evening found embedded on another blog after the video had been posted to YouTube - not that I'm saying I saw it FIRST 'cause I have no idea.... but I just wanted you to know I wasn't TRYING to steal your blogpost for today, promise! hahaha - thanks for posting it so I could find the youtube link so I could embed it! I DID earlier post it on Facebook, where you can also find it.)

If you have not already seen this, holy freak you HAVE to watch it.  For goodness sake, who CARES if I have a little sniffle. This is unreal.  Absolutely mind-boggling.

I keep seeing all this stuff going on in the world and wondering how the heck much longer before it's finally my turn.  Not that I'm asking for a turn, what a tremendous BLESSING that so far I've been SPARED much worse than blackouts, mild portions of massive ice storms, and general life hardships, but hot dang these incredible DISASTERS?  I can't be immune forever!

My heart aches for those who are less fortunate than I. Un. Real.

Thankful Thursday

Okay, it's later.  Sorry for no posts all week and then two in one day. As I always say, I'm a work in progress! O:-) (At least I'm cute, right? Well, at least Mr. Man thinks so....)

5 Things I'm Grateful For

1) RAIN

(from: http://iplumbinc.ca/collect-rain-water-and-save/)

So, I don't ALWAYS feel grateful for rain. Especially on a cold afternoon walk in early March with Little Miss in tow in her snowsuit on our way to pick up another child from school to then trudge back home through the muddy puddles, slush, ice, and snow...because I spend MOST of the walk trying desperately to encourage Little Miss to stay out of the really really deep puddles, keep moving forward to we can get home out of the wet and increasingly cold, not get pneumonia.....

But I LIKE rain. I mean, sometimes it ruins my nicely-pin-straightened hair, gets my clothes all wet when I'm without rain coat and/or umbrella...

But I LIKE rain.

Rain means spring, and while I LOVE winter and the cold - can't get snuggly warm when it's already too hot outside - I'm ready for spring.  I'm ready for rainbows, rain puddles, rain storms, rain clouds.  I'm ready for rain to make things green, to melt what's left of the snow and ice. To was the crud off my car, my porch, my house.  Rain makes my garden grow without me having to remember to water it.  It gives stay-inside-and-snuggle-on-the-couch grey days.  It pit-pit-pats on the roof creating wonderful, lulling background noise....

Yup. I love rain.  Even if I have to walk in it for tomorrow morning's daycare dropoffs and pickups from school, it's great.

Thanks for raining! 

2) IMAGINATION

(from: http://imielvisser.com/2010/10/03/imagine-spirit-within-and-without-by-osho-a-guide-to-your-imagination/)

I think this was the predominant cause of my younger-self's bossiness towards my poor younger brother, as our play games always consisted of my imagining myself in a position of power over him i.e. the bossy teacher at school, or bossy parent, or bossy boss..... Anyway.  What was I talking about?

In the last couple of days I have watched imagination make toilet paper rolls into a sword, which then turned into a telescope, making my darling Little Miss a pirate sailing the open seas grunting "ARRRRRRRR!" and searching for treasure.  Today, she became a cat and spent an hour or so on hands and knees, picking her toys up in her mouth and making requests by meowing and pointing.  When she has similar toys the toys automatically become a family and she plays happily for ages imagining mom giving time outs - "no! Go to your room!" - to the babies.  Her naked cabbage patch doll regularly has a poopy bum to show off.  I'll call out "Little Miss! Don't do that, please!" and hear back, "I'm just pwetending, Mom. I'm just pwetending to draw on the table." "Don't draw on the table." "I'm not! I'm just pwetending!"

Pwetending rocks my socks and keeps us entertained for hours.

3) PONYTAILS

(from: http://beautyzap.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-jennifer-anistons-tacked-pony.html)

Is there a simpler, more fantastic, acceptable hairstyle out there?  I mean, I LOVE LOVE having short short short hair, but even then I have to at least wet my head down each morning, shake the water off, and place the odd stray before I get going in the morning.  With my hair a bit longer, as it is at the moment, I get up, I grab a hair elastic, pull the night's rat's nest behind me in the elastic... VOILA I'm fit to be seen in public.  BRILLIANT.

AND...I don't spend all day fiddling with my hair! Pushing it out of my eyes, behind my ears, holding it up off my neck in hopes of a passing cool breeze... it stays out of my face while running, playing sports, tickling Little Miss, doing housework.

Ponytails. Gotta' love 'em!

(And yes, I know I don't rock a ponytail as well as Ms. Anniston.  Who does? But LOOK at it! SO functional and TOTALLY hot. Yesssssssssss!)

4) SUPPORT

(from: http://www.raw-food-repair.com/raw-food-support-groups.html)

Ever try to do something (like exercise and eat right? For an on-blog-topic example) aaaaand NOT have anyone behind you, backing you up, helping you out, keeping you strong?  Yeah, how much harder is that??

Generally, I don't have that problem.

What a blessing.

Thanks, team! (You SHOULD know who you are, though your numbers and members have changed over the years, you're all amazing, and have played a remarkably humongous part in making me and my life who I am and what it is. YOU ROCK like a rock-solid supporter should.  BOOyah and MUAH!)

5) "NEW" FURNITURE

(from: http://www.myspace.com/57941151)

Sooooo... we're young(ish? I mean, Mr. Man DID just have the big 3-0 - OY!), in debt, impoverished, overly educated for our pittance paycheques, and we have a LOT of hand-me-down furniture.

Which, honestly, is amazing. Amazing. THANKS for handing things down so we could furnish our home 'cause it probably wouldn't have happened otherwise!

BUT, recently.... we bought some 'new' used furniture.

We went from old, crummy, ugly, literally falling-apart-at-the-seams and horribly "covered" up with slip-covers living room furniture (couch & loveseat) and we graduated to, beautiful, comfortable, squishy, slouchy-but-supportive-enough, inviting, easy-to-clean and even room-matching LEATHER couch & armchairs. WHAT a difference - slouchy, constantly-needs-to-be-straightened-there-that's-better-NO-DON'T-SIT-LIKE-THAT slip covers are A THING OF THE PAST and I can without a thought now plop myself down on my living room furniture with a good book, and get up without having ruined the decor of the entire room.

Say it with me now: WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Best house upgrade yet.

THANKS for selling us your used furniture and ending my HATE HATE relationship with my old couch.  Which I totally watched get thrown into the garbage truck and crushed by the garbage crusher.... there was cracking, splintering wood.... it was epic.

And THAT, my friends, is this week's Thankful Thursday post.

What? It's been a week?

Holy cow!

So, the intention was TOTALLY not to ONLY write Thankful-Thursday posts, I swear! This week just ended up being a LITTLE bit more insane than, well, I'd ever ever ever imagined..... which makes it the perfect blogging week, really, 'cause holy COW is stuff going on, but hot dang just NO TIME!

Well, I guess that's not totally true.... I could have been blogging last night after I totally and completely crashed (yeah, it was like, 8.  I died a little) on the couch with Mr. Man and LAUGHED and LAUGHED and LAUGHED at the funniest website EVER (BEFORE you click here just know that not everything is, um.... "appropriate."  Let's just say I have a new adoration for the iPhone, a device I have never ever ever used, nor will I, I don't think, after seeing its fantastic autocorrect). 

Anyway, it's so friggin early in the day I figured I'd write and tell you what's up and then LATER, when I'm less groggy (oh how I loathe 6am) I'll do Thankful Thursday. :-)

So on Saturday my darling friends' house had a rather crazy flooding happen in their basement.  Which is kinda' normal for basements in the spring.  I mean, as much as it sucks, it HAPPENS, right? 

Well, this wasn't just a flood.  This was some city-sewer-malfunction that backed up into their townhouse complex through the DRAIN (isn't water supposed to, by definition, go OUT the drain and not up it?) in the basement.  Yes, that's right.  The sewer.

As in sewage.

As in, there was a lake of excrement and all whatever else is mixed into that lovely water in the basement.

Man oh man did THAT smell fantastic or what??

So we all purchased rubber boots (can I just say how much I ADORE my very ugly, very functional rubber boots? Wore them to shovel snow - feet stayed warm and dry. Wore them to walk in the rain yesterday - feet stayed warm and dry. Wore them in a lake of poop - feet stayed warm, dry, and poop free! BOOyah! Best $15 EVER SPENT!) and spent the afternoon wading through the ankle+ deep lake.  Trying not to make too many waves and knock things over, nor to get the wet all over as we hauled salvageable items up and out of harm's way.

LOVEly.

Saturday night, the three ladies of the house moved into ours for sleeping, showering, relaxing - they'd lost heat, hot water, SPACE, breathable air.... forget about the toxicity levels of the drying poop (it drained eventually, Saturday evening). 

(Last night was the first night they were back home.)

Sunday, Little Miss was sick.  She'd been sick with a cold before that, but Sunday was the worst day. So she and I skipped church, and had a snuggle day, which, honestly, was much needed after a sleepless night.

Monday....Monday was just WEIRD.  I don't normally GET the "Mondays" but hot dang, they came out battling HARD this week, and totally won.  NOTHING went as planned on Monday, and I was totally run off my feet.  I had one planned task for the day, to get my upstairs cleaned and tidied in preparation for taking over my neighbour's daycare starting the next day (she went on vacation - the audacity!) aaaaaaaaaand didn't even get that task STARTED.  Not even STARTED.  Monday sucked.

Also on Monday Mr. Man and I had an appointment with the admissions department at a "local" college to look into different post-graduate opportunities for me (the appointment did not go well. Wow. And it was LONG!)

Tuesday? Tuesday started the 6am wake ups so I'm ready to receive a darling sweet 5-yr-old boy at 6:30 each morning.  Then after I delivered said charge to school Little Miss and I headed back over to the flood house to clear the basement of garbage and EVERYTHING ELSE, so the magic cleaning crew could get in there and sanitize the walls and floors.  (Little Miss spent the day two floors about the flood site, and was immediately disrobed and bathed when we got home to nix any ick that may have floated its way upstairs.  So far, we've both survived).

We SLAVED Tuesday. I haven't done physical labour like that for a good while. Probably since my SIL/BIL moved last summer??  Then I had to get home, change my clothes, shower, and get my butt to school to pick up a different daycare kid.

Yesterday? Another 6am wake up, 6:30 kid receiving (oh yeah, don't forget the extra women in the house, which was SO not a big deal, but I think freaked the poor 5-year-old right out - WOW there are a lot of people in this tiny house!), 8:50 school drop off.... and I'm not going to lie, I DIED yesterday.  At least except cleaning the kitchen, feeding the family, and an afternoon trip in the rain with Little Miss to pick up yet a different daycare kid - WOW was Little Miss SATURATED by the time we got home or what!  Snowpants do NOT hold up against puddles.  Oh yes, and there was a knock at the door - a different daycare mom who isn't scheduled to send her 1-year-old to me stopped over to see if there's any way I can take her bambino from 12-5 today because, get this, her husband is in the hospital.  So, today, which started at 6, will include what I'm sure will be a pathetic attempt at baby-proofing to then be followed by chasing a very active baby around the house making sure he doesn't kill himself, and OH yes....DIAPERS! 

Can't friggin' wait. 

One more 6am wake up this week....then.... MARCH BREAK!

Yeah, I think it's safe to say I need to do Thankful Thursday today..... I'm DONE this week. And I have to survive tomorrow including 6am, 2 daycare kids, and a mad dash to Orangeville for a Leifayre Jewellery open house (joint with Scentsy, with a consultant who won't be there because she's busy at Disney in Florida.  Guess who's middle man on THAT one?  taking a bow I'm absolultey BRILLIANT sometimes).

Okay, so, unless I pass out later (totally possible) I'll be back for Thankful Thursday later this evening.